Should soil classification be mandatory for manuscripts aiming to publish in Geoderma and Geoderma Regional?

With the use of soil classification in decline (e.g. Hartemink et al., 2015; Certini and Scalenghe, 2019), there is a recurrent discussion among soil scientists and journal editors whether or not a proper soil classification should be mandatory for submissions to soil science journals, such as Geoderma and Geoderma Regional. In a letter to the editor, Prof. Gudeta Sileshi argued that the inclusion of soil classification could facilitate meaningful comparisons between soil studies and streamline communication between scientists. It would also allow for integrating scientific results into follow-up studies, databases, meta-analyses, reviews and/or modeling initiatives. Others argue that the inclusion of soil classification is not a high priority: certain subdisciplines or hypotheses have fewer references to soil type e.g. in studies dealing with soil (micro)-biological aspects, geotechnics or certain aspects of soil chemistry, where a quantification of key soil parameters may be more informative. Moreover, soil studies can cover a range of scales, from continents to micrometers, and the different systems of classification all have their own strengths and limitations. In this editorial, we therefore take the opportunity to clarify our position, and to explain why Geoderma and Geoderma Regional strongly encourage authors to include a soil classification according to one of the international systems officially approved by the International Union of Soil Sciences, i.e. the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (approved 1998 at the WCSS in Montpellier) and the Soil Taxonomy (approved 2014 at the WCSS in South Korea) and, if appropriate, additionally a published national classification system.